Dhaka Metro rail authority has decided to run the metro rail even after 9 pm. The decision will be effective from Wednesday, 16th Ramadan. The decision will remain in force until the day before Eid-ul-Fitr. Metro rail will remain closed on the Eid day. Managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL),  M. A. N. Siddique, disclosed the information at a press briefing on Tuesday (March 26). He said that the last train will leave Uttara North Station at 9:00 pm from Wednesday. The last train will leave Motijheel station at 9:40 pm. He added the metro rail movement time will be extended by one hour from tomorrow (March 26) till the day before Eid-ul-Fitr. Another 10 trains will run in the extra time. 

On Monday (Dec 11), the High Court dismissed a writ petition challenging the legality of the schedule for the 12th Jatiya Sangsad election. The High Court bench comprising Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Atabullah passed the order. Advocate Md Eunus Ali Akond stood in favour of the petition in the court, while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state. Eunus Ali filed the writ petition in the relevant branch of the High Court on November 29.  The petition included the chief election commissioner, the election commission secretary, the secretary of the Ministry of Law, and seven others as defendants.  The notice highlighted the ongoing political crisis in the country, stating that strikes and blockades are ongoing, making it impossible to conduct fair elections.  Earlier, the lawyer sent a legal notice on November 28. The 12th Jatiya Sangsad election is set to be held on January 7, as per the schedule announced by Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal on November 15.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Habibul Awal will announce 12th national elections schedule this evening. "The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) will deliver address to the nation and announce the next elections schedule at 7pm today", said Election Commission (EC) Secretary and spokesperson M Jahangir Alam at the Nirbachan Bhaban in city's Agargaon area. Bangladesh Television (BTV) will live telecast CEC's address from the Nirbachan Bhaban. Before the announcement of the polls schedule, the EC will hold a meeting at 5pm, Alam said. Security arrangements have been beefed up around the EC Bhaban and its adjacent areas on the announcement of the polls schedule. The hearing on personal NID correction at the EC Bhaban has remained stopped since Tuesday (Nov 14). The eligible voters are 11, 96, 91,633 in the country. Of them, some 6, 07, 71,579 are male voters, 5, 89, 19,202 female voters and 852 third gender voters. Meanwhile, the EC has finalized the voter lists of 300 constituencies across the country ahead of the 12th national polls. The voting of the parliamentary polls will be held with the updated voter list. During the eleventh national polls, the eligible voter was 10, 42, 38,677. But, around 1,54,52,956 fresh voters have enrolled in the voter list during the last five years.   Source : BSS

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said today (Thursday) that the election schedule would be announced "very soon" as the time for the next national polls is imminent. He came up with the announcement after a meeting between EC officials and President Mohammad Shahabuddin at the Bangabhaban. The EC officials reached the Bangabhaban for the meeting in the morning. Election commissioners Ahsan Habib Khan, Rasheda Sultana, Md Alamgir and Md Anisur Rahman accompanied Awal to the presidential palace with CEC.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said on Sunday at his office that they would announce the schedule of the upcoming 12th general elections in October this year while the polls would be held in late December or early January of the next year. “It is not possible to announce the schedule before October,” Awal told reporters at a media briefing replying to a question. Asked when the elections could be held the CEC said “not before the last week of December”. “The election will be held in the last week of December (2023) or first week of January (2024),” Awal said. The CEC said he earlier had commented to a newspaper that the schedule might be announced in September keeping in mind the constitutional obligation to declare it within 90 days ahead of the polls. Later, he said, the commission observed that it was not possible ahead of October.

After the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Bangladesh cricket team will be busy in international cricket. Bangladesh will play against England and Ireland in home series one by one.  Tigers will play against England on March 01. Which will end on March 14 after 3 ODIs and 3 T20s. Then Bangladesh Cricket team play against the Ireland. Ireland will set foot in Dhaka on March 12. The guests will come to Bangladesh and play a warm up match  on March 15. Ireland will play three ODIs and T20Is against the hosts in the tour. Then the only test series will be played. Among them, the test match will be at Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur. The rest will be at Sylhet and Chattogram venues. The series will begin with an ODI match. The first ODI at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium is on March 18. The next two matches are on March 20 and 23. The first match of T20 series in Chattogram on March 27. The next two T20 matches are on March 29 and 31. The only test match will on April 4. This is the first test Bangladesh will play against Ireland.

The Election Commissioner Alamgir said, "The schedule of by-elections will announce on Sunday, December 18 in the vacant seats due to the resignation of seven members of parliament of BNP." On Thursday, December 15, he said this in response to questions from journalists at the Agargaon election building in the capital. At that time, the Election Commissioner said, "We have a commission meeting on December 18. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KaziHabibulAwal will preside over the meeting. In that meeting, there will be a discussion about the by-election of vacant seats. The election schedule will be announced after the meeting. Earlier, on December 10, the resignation of seven MPs of the party was announced at the BNP's Dhaka division mass meeting at Golapbagh ground in the capital. The next day on December 11, five MPs of the party submitted their resignation letters to the Speaker in person.

The Dredging of Outer Bar Area of Mongla Port Channel has been completed ahead of schedule and  the new dredged channel was commissioned to the large merchant ships to utilize Mongla Port. Commenced on 13 January 2019, the Project was completed on 03 December 2020, two weeks ahead of scheduled time despite the ongoing Pandemic. The Contractor, HKRE-CCECC JV, mobilized three giant dredger facilities including two hopper dredgers and one of the world’s largest cutter suction dredger, the 40 inch Xin Hai Teng for the execution of the Project and yielded great success even they had to wade through three devastating Cyclones-Fani, Bulbul and Amphan and two Monsoon seasons during the Contract period to make that happen. The main component of the works have been executed under the Contract was dredging of 11 km channel with total dredging volume of 11.91 million cu.m up to design depth (-8.50 CD below) by Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (TSHD) and Cutter Suction Dredger (CSD). The Scope of Works also included all pre/post/interim hydrographic survey and construction of cofferdam. Rear Admiral M Shahjahan, Chairman of Mongla Port Authority said in an interview with Rtv that, “the Contractor Company has completed the work by 1st week of December which was prior to deadline. Upon the completion of the Works, Mongla Port could achieve the desired depth of channels which would vastly increase the navigability of the Mongla Port. Now we are able to take 8.5 meter draft ship to the Port and we are expecting to serve 10 meter draft ships soon”. “As a world-renowned leading contractor in infrastructure including marine works, we take Bangladesh as a prospective market and we are keen to contribute to the socio-economic development of the nation and materializing of the Golden Bangla Dream. ” said the Project Manager, Mr. Li Guangqi from China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, JV Partner of the Contractor Company. Mongla Port is set to expand dredge the inner Bar of Mongla Port Channel to facilitate the anchoring of container ships with drafts of 10 meters of the Port from January 2021. Once the Padma bridge becomes fully operational next year, with the continuous development and improvement of the port facilities and road connectivity from the Port to Dhaka and North Bengal, Mongla Port has the potential of handling 10,000 ships by 2050, becoming the transport hub for Bangladesh and neighboring countries including India, Nepal and Bhutan. AH

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has fallen into schedule crisis as one of its aircraft of Dash-8 Q400 model crash landed at Yangon international airport in Myanmar on Wednesday. Following damage of the aircraft three flights on Thursday and another seven of Friday and Saturday have been cancelled due to shortage of airplane. Biman General Manager of Public Relations Shakil Meraj said, following the accident in Myanmar seven flights in Dhaka to Syedpur, Sylhet, Jashore and Rajshahi route till Monday have been cancelled. It is known that flights from Dhaka to Syedpur, Rajshahi, Barishal, Jashore are operated using the Dash-8 Q 400 aircrafts while Boeing 787, 777 and 737 aircrafts are used in Sylhet, Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar route. The airlines fell into aircraft crisis following accident of the Dash-8 Q 400 aircraft. There are 13 aircrafts in the fleet of national flight career. Of those two Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, four Boeing 777-300, four 737-800 and three Dash-8. Of those one Boeing 737 aircraft is grounded for repairing. And another Dash-8 aircraft is out of operation following the accident. In this regard Biman’s acting Managing Director Captain Farhat Hasan Jamil said, every aircraft has fixed schedule. As a result aircraft procurement cannot be possible in this short period. We are working to avert the crisis. AH

Dhaka University authority has declared the schedule of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election. Chief Returning Officer Professor Dr. AM Mahfuzur Rahman declared the DUCSU election schedule from the Naban Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of the university at 10 am on Monday. According to the declared schedule, the election will be held on March 11 and draft voters list will be published on the websites of Dhaka University and other residential halls on February 11. Besides, correction of voter list will take place on February 18 and the final voters list will be published on February 20. Nomination forms will be distributed from February 19 to 25. February 26 will be the last date of nomination forms submission and scrutiny will be held on the day. List of candidates will be published on February 27 and last date of nomination forms withdrawal is on February 28. It was said in the schedule, according to the section 6 (B) and 7 (A) of the DUCSU constitution the election for 25 posts will be held on March 11. Among the posts there are- Vice President, General Secretary, Assistant General Secretary, Independence and Liberation War Affairs Secretary, Science and Technology Secretary, Common Room and Cafeteria Secretary, International Affairs Secretary, Literature Secretary, Cultural Secretary, Sports Secretary, Students Transport Secretary, Social Welfare Secretary and 13 for the post of members.   Returning Officers Professor Dr. Amal Krishna Halder and Professor Mahbuba Nasrin were also present in the press conference. The university authority has declared about the eligibility of voters and candidates for DUCSU and hall students council elections. Those who are studying honors, masters and MPhil through first year admission tests can be voters and candidates. In this regard students aged over 30 years cannot be voters or candidates. Besides, students of different evening courses, programs, professional executives, special masters, diploma, MEd, PhD, DBA, language course, certificate course and such types of courses cannot take part in the DUCSU elections. Voting centers will be set up in every residential hall. AH